Rinoa Heartilly
For a complete biography of Rinoa Heartilly's debut appearance, please see: Rinoa Heartilly (Final Fantasy Wikia) Rinoa Heartilly is a rebellious teenager from Final Fantasy VIII. Participating in various underground protest movements against her government's dictorship, Rinoa later discovered that she would inherit the magical powers of a Sorceress. Rinoa's appearance was a surprise to many viewers. Love interest to Final Fantasy VIII's main protagonist Squall Leonhart, Rinoa has not made many appearances outside of her debut game. __TOC__ Biography Final Fantasy VIII :Rinoa Heartilly is the daughter of Fury Caraway, a General in the dictatorship's army, and Julia Heartilly, a popular song writer and singer. When Rinoa was five, Julia died in a car accident, and her relationship with her father grew rocky over time until she left and became a member of the resistance faction, Forest Owls. :By personally asking the head of the organization, she was allowed the use of a group of SeeDs (elite mercenary forces) to aid her cause despite the meager payment she had to offer. The three SeeD chosen were Zell Dincht, Selphie Tilmitt, and Squall Leonhart. :The SeeD group at first willingly assisted in Rinoa's plans the SeeDs' confidence in the group began to wane. Squall expresses the SeeD group's misgivings about being part of such a casual organization and questions Rinoa's commitment to her goals. The argument ends with her leaving. Later, while hiding out after the resistance group was disbanded, the two get into another argument over their views on life, and again over Squall's cold attitude towards his teammates. :When the SeeDs receiving a new task from their organization Rinoa, still holding contract over them, pretends to be a SeeD to join Squall's group to assassinate the Sorceress, Edea Kramer, who was taking over the dictatorship. :However, the attack proved unsuccessful and the group was captured and imprisoned. After escaping the prison facility, the SeeD's return to their organization to prevent a reprisal attack from the Sorceress, resulting in the SeeD building's transformation into a mobile fortress. Cleaning up loose ends, Rinoa asks Squall for a personal tour of the facility, and in doing so begins to see another side to the taciturn loner. As a result she begins to take an interest in him, attempting to force him into a lighter mood whenever the opportunity arises. :When Squall was appointed Commander of SeeD, his friends, including Rinoa, held a concert for the sole purpose of lightening the load on Squall's shoulders. Eventually SeeD and the Sorceress battled again, this time resulting in Sorceress Edea's defeat and Rinoa mysteriously becoming comatose. :Rinoa's condition was of great concern to Squall, driving him to great lengths to find the reason behind the coma and how to wake her from it. Eventually, Squall is sent to space with Rinoa, where onboard a space satellite she awakens under the control of the sorceress who had been possessing Edea, Ultimecia; Ultimecia had left Edea's body to enter Rinoa's due to her untapped potential to also be a sorceress. Sorceress Ultimecia then uses Rinoa as a means to unlock Adel's Tomb. The evil sorceress then leaves Rinoa to die in space. However, Squall had ditched his escape pod from the exploding satellite and was able to intercept her and together the two return to Earth safely. :Due to the discovery of her being a potential sorceress, upon landing back in Esthar Rinoa was taken by officials to contain her sorceress powers in a new tomb. Squall intervened, breaking the seal of the Tomb and taking Rinoa away with him where Rinoa voices her concerns about being possessed again and turning evil. Squall then makes a silent vow to become Rinoa's "Knight". :During the final battle, Ultimecia enters Rinoa once again, although this time the possession was anticipated and the SeeDs travel through time to enter Ultimecia's castle in the future. Upon Ultimecia's demise time unravels back to normal, however Squall becomes lost in the portals. :Using her Sorceress powers, Rinoa manages to locate Squall at the end of time. He was near death but because of her arrival and her belief that he would survive, Squall was revived from non-existence. In the game's ending the two embrace and kiss. Dead Fantasy :Rinoa's intentions are mysteriously unrevealed though it seems that she was responsible for Tifa's arrival at the tower and is revealed to have been watching the ensuing battle, saving the match's combatants from a fiery fate by solidifying the environment in ice before she herself enters the fray along with Kairi. :She gracefully duels against Rachel primarily, and also protects her team members on various occasions. After demonstrating telekinetic powers and spells such as Tornado and Ultima as well as a variation of her own Limit Break, Wishing Star, she utilizes the power of the Lunar Cry to conjure portals from the moon and separate the girls for a series of one-on-one brawls. Although Kairi was intending to knock Rachel into one of these portals, Rachel made it to Rinoa instead and was blasted off with her, heralding a massive magical battle between the Sorceress and the fiend hunter in future installments. Fighting Capacity :She wields her own version of her boy's icon weapon, the gunblade, in one hand and her icon weapon, the Blaster Edge, in the other, while simultaneously implementing the Sorceress Power with her angel wings unfurled. :She also wields two fan-made weapons: the gunblade Vanishing Star and the blaster edge Silenced Tear. Her sword style vaguely resembles that of Amy Sorel from the Soul Calibur series. Weapons Vanishing Star :Despite initial belief, the Gunblade that Rinoa wields is not one of Squall's, but a fan-made model that Monty Oum created himself. :Rinoa Heartilly's primary weapon in Dead Fantasy. The Vanishing Star possesses a revolver handle like Squall's gunblade but features a different blade with a white feather and the words Vanishing Star inscribed upon it. Upon further inspection, the Gunblade has two triggers (as noted on Monty Oum's deviant) and an actual gun barrel atop the weapon's blade, as well as exhaust port's on the blade itself, suggesting that it can be used as ranged weapon as well. On said gun barrel, the words "All Existence Denied" are inscribed: a notable quote in Final Fantasy VIII Silenced Tear :Rinoa's secondary weapon in Dead Fantasy can be folded against the arm when not in use and, when activated, can be unfolded and ready to launch within seconds. Like the Blaster Edges before it the Silenced Tear is fired from a wrist mounted launcher and will return to the wielder near the end of its flight ready to be fired again. :When unfolded the center of the disc can be junctioned with magical power in a similar way to Final Fantasy VIII's Junction System. In Dead Fantasy II, Rinoa junctions it with Holy magic and activates it when clashing against Ayane. Sorceress Power :As a Sorceress, Rinoa uses a great deal of powerful magic in battle: abilities include utilizing telekinesis, teleportation, telepathy, mind control, mental possession, control over the elements, the installation life into inanimate objects, projection of kinetic barriers, the capacity to phase through solid matter, and enhanced strength and endurance. Sorceresses also demonstrate the ability to alter their physical appearance to some extent. Junction System :A combat mechanic featured in Final Fantasy VIII, the Junction System allowed non-magic characters to use para-magic in battle; enabling them to junction magic into themselves to boost their abilities or to junction magic into their weapons to impart stats or additional effects. Relationships Final Fantasy Comrades :Though Rinoa does not appear to have known her comrades previously, they interact to each other in a friendly manner, waving upon meeting. During Rachel's attack, Rinoa puts herself between it and her team mates to protect Rikku and Kairi, the team's youngest members. In fact, she protects her comrades from almost every attack the DOA girls attempt from her introduction to her exit. Likewise, as she is about to be struck by Rachel, her team members Rikku, Yuna, and Kairi team up to send Rachel flying backward. Other Appearances Dead Fantasy Gee :Rinoa appears in the music video Dead Fantasy Gee in her ballroom dress. She sings and dances alongside Yuna, Kasumi, Ayane, Rikku, Hitomi, Tifa, Kairi, and Cissnei. Gallery File:FF Rinoa.JPG File:6c28c4ea.jpg Kairi & Rinoa.png Trivia *Rinoa's sword style vaguely resembles that of Amy from Soul Calibur. *The voice of Sion Elthnam Atlasia from Melty Blood was used for Rinoa in DF II. *In Final Fantasy VIII, Rinoa was only able to display her wings during the Angel Wing Limit Break. *Apart from the Angel Wings symbol and the ring of her mother, shooting stars also seem to have a significance to Rinoa. *Squall and Rinoa appear in a Technical Demo for the Playstation 2 where they re-enact the waltz scene from Final Fantasy VIII to showcase the console's graphics engine.